Meeting prompts: define authorized inputs and evidence

Last updated: 2 Oct 202611 min read

tutorial

A meeting-record prompt begins with an input boundary. Name the meeting, authorized transcript and notes, access scope, intended recipients, and retention rule. Treat the transcript as evidence about what was said, not as proof that a plan was approved. Speaker labels and timestamps can be wrong; ask for a traceable span and mark uncertain attribution rather than assigning a statement to the nearest name. The system that captures or shares a meeting must apply its recording and access policy outside the prompt. A recap generator should receive the minimum permitted excerpt needed for its task and should not silently combine another meeting, chat thread, or private document.

Operational case

In a fictional Beacon API pilot meeting, five attendees discuss a limited deployment to 20 depots. The permitted packet contains the transcript and chair's notes for that meeting only. One sentence at 12:43 is partly inaudible and the transcript labels its speaker as Dana, but the chair's notes do not confirm it. The prompt marks the speaker as uncertain; it does not turn the sentence into Dana's commitment. A separate private staffing note is excluded. The recap is prepared for the five attendees to review before it reaches the larger delivery group. The prompt's access instruction cannot itself grant or revoke transcript permissions.

Meeting: Beacon API pilot; audience: five attendees.
Allowed: this meeting's transcript and chair notes only.
Excluded: private staffing note and other meeting threads.
Span 12:43: attribution uncertain; do not assign an owner.
Output: draft recap for attendee correction before wider share.

Performance and operating cost

Scanning T transcript turns and N note items is O(T+N) work before summarization. Long recordings raise token cost and increase the chance that a late decision is buried; segment by agenda item while preserving time and speaker context. Keeping evidence span IDs beside draft claims adds storage proportional to the number of claims, but saves review time when someone disputes a decision. Retention and access rules need enforcement in the meeting system; removing a transcript from a prompt does not delete its stored copy.

Common Mistakes

Do not infer consent to record or share from a prompt instruction.
Do not assign an inaudible statement to a named person without confirmation.
Do not merge private notes into a recap for a wider audience.

Connected lessons

prompt engineering

meeting records